Working on more than one business at a time

[Terrance]

Given that online businesses takes time to design, develop, market etc. would it be ideal to work on multiple projects at the same time or is it generally a terrible idea?

What are your experiences with that?
Does it usually end in burn out?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Ika]

Your phrasing makes me wonder whether you actually have two businesses or if this is just a hypothetical mental masturbation.
Are you looking for advice or a theoretical discussion on the subject?

While I fear you are looking for the later, I will give my two cents for people looking for the first.


In my starting days, everytime I tried to do multiple things at once, nothing worked.
As soon as I stayed with one thing for a long period of time, I started gaining friction.

Great post on that subject by @snowbank :
Entrepreneurial-diworsification



You have to ask yourself, why would you create two businesses at once?

If you've never built one business, what makes you think you can successfully build two?

It's quite likely one of your businesses is not as good as the other, or you don't enjoy it as much.
Cut it out. Why would you keep doing something that just steals your time?

If you have two businesses, it also means you have to divide your attention and time.
And let me tell you, if you are my competition, and you only spend half of your attention and half of your time, I will outwork you.
It get's even worse if you still have a job or study or do something else fulltime. It means you have to divide the few lasting hours and the last drops of attention.


Tl;dr: Why would you do two things if you can do just one - and will likely end up more successfull?
Read: GOLD - One Trick Pony

 

[MidwestLandlord]

No ecommerce, but still applicable experience I think.

When I signed up to the forum, I had my fingers in 5 different businesses.

It sucked.

I'm now down to 2 businesses, and life is a whole lot better...but it's obvious to me that is still 1 too many.

It just doesn't go like you think it would. Seems logical to not have all your eggs in one basket and all that, but it's just impossible to run a GREAT business with your attention divided between them.

I ended up just treading water. Got nowhere with any of it. Made a good income for sure, but I wasn't building anything, only maintaining.

I'm working on being in 1 business only, I hope to have that done within a year from now.

1 GREAT business + money system investments = happiness.